Barefoot Gen

Review Date: 2005 July 27 17:55

Reviewed by: Joe

Released by: Optimum Releasing

Age Rating: 12

Region: 2 - UK

Length: 170 minutes

Subtitles: English

Audio: Japanese 2.0 Stereo

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Summary

Drawn from writer Keiji Nakazawa's true life experiences in the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, 'Barefoot Gen' tells the story of one family's struggle to survive against overwhelming odds.

Barefoot Gen: Gen Nakaoka is on his way to school when the atomic bomb detonates. He makes his way back to his home through hellish scenes of ruined buildings, corpses, and hideously mutilated survivors. Although his family is still alive, Gen and his pregnant mother are unable to free his father, sister, and brother from the rubble of their house and must leave them to burn to death. His mother goes into labor during their flight and his new sister is born amid the devastation. Holding the infant, Gen tells her to remember the horrors, so that they never occur again.


Barefoot Gen 2: Gen has lived practically his entire life in the shadow of war. Yet, in trying to aid a group of orphans to survive and find a new life, he is not prepared for the horrors which follow the bombing of Hiroshima.

Review

Barefoot Gen is a harrowing and heart-warming tale of a boy’s story to survive the nuclear bomb dropped on his hometown of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. The film starts with setting the scene, showing what life is like for Gen growing up in Japan during World War II and the hardships he and his family must face, living on limited amounts of food and the desperations they go to, to fend for their meals, along with the constant threat of air raids. The film really does show domestic 1940’s Japan and it’s worth watching for the cultural insights alone.